Cry Vengeance [Blu-ray]

Director: Mark Stevens Mark Stevens

Overview

Vic Barron (Mark Stevens) is an ex-detective from San Francisco whose career is ruined and family is destroyed because of his dedication to his job. Three years before, he'd been close to breaking a gang with ties to some very powerful people. Then they tried to kill him by bombing his car; he was permanently disfigured, and his wife and child died in the blast, and then he was set up with planted money and sentenced to prison. Now he's out, and he's no longer a cop, but that won't stop him from finishing his last case or finding the man who planted the bomb. Neither his former friends on the force (who know he was innocent) nor the "persuasive" efforts of Roxey (Skip Homeier), a psychopathic strong-arm man, can get him to change his mind or his plans. Vic thinks he knows one of the men responsible, Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy), but it turns out that Morelli's been hiding out in Alaska, just as desperate in his desire not to be found as Vic has been to get revenge, and hiding from the same man. No sooner does the ex-cop come to appreciate this fact then he is set up for another fall -- this time for murder. But in the process, he finally figures out who was behind the destruction of his family; and he finds some things in life worth living for, if he can manage to stay alive to enjoy them.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/30/2013
UPC:	0887090068406
Original Release:	1954
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	18,307

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mark Stevens	Vic Barron
Martha Hyer	Peggy Harding
Skip Homeier	Roxey Davis
Joan Vohs	Lily Arnold
Douglas Kennedy	Tino Morelli,Emily Miller
Don Haggerty	Lt. Ryan
Cheryl Callaway	Marie Morelli
Warren Douglas	Mike Walters
Mort Mills	Johnny Blue-Eyes
John Doucette	Red Miller
Lewis Martin	Nick Buda

Technical Credits

George Bricker

Lindsley Parsons	Producer
Mark Stevens	Director
George Bricker	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

From its opening credits shot, of an aerial view of Ketchikan, AK, as a plane carrying mail lands by a dock, Cry Vengeance is a visually engrossing movie, using actual locations for its exteriors and generally maintaining a texture of realism that is braving to the viewer. The plot seems to take a wrong turn at nine minutes in by explaining too much of what we've just seen as mysterious action, but director and star Mark Stevens keeps the action moving so fast and smoothly that the revelation simply opens up more angles to draw the viewer in. And in fairly short order, a de facto duel has been set up between Stevens' maimed ex-detective and the strong-arm man (Skip Homeier) sent to shadow him, with escalating levels of violence in the bargain. It's all a bit reminiscent of Fritz Lang's The Big Heat but with a style and allure all its own, thanks to Stevens as both an actor and director. In the title role, he projects an almost palpable, edgy desperation that is totally convincing, while as a director he seems to know how to move his story forward without wasting a single shot or even a frame of film. The editing by Elmo Vernon and the music score by Paul Dunlap also go a long way toward keeping this one of the more briskly, neatly paced and engrossing examples of film noir.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder